THE CLOSURE of Otley’s Ideal Standard factory would mark another step in it becoming a “commuter town”.

That was the warning made by one town councillor this week in the wake of the company’s announcement that it is planning to shut its Ilkley Road production base next year.

The factory has made plastic mouldings for bathrooms for many years, but Ideal Standard is now restructuring its manufacturing base, and says it would be too expensive to bring the Otley site up to scratch.

Cllr Nigel Francis (Ind, Danefield) said the closure would be “tragic” for the local manufacturing industry. He said: “It’s sad that in the next five or six years there could be nothing left in Otley, it could just be a commuter town.”